This project is a quick and simple HTML email compiler written in PHP. It allows you to build an email like a normal webpage and have your separate HTML and CSS files combined into one file. This resulting file will have all styles as inline style attributes on every element for the greatest email compatibility.
We use CSSCrush to run SASS-like optimizations and minification on your CSS before utilizing PHPMailer to inline it all. Then we place the resulting code into a simple, email-optimized HTML template file ready to send.
The project requires setting up Composer to complete installation:
- CD to the Composer directory with
cd ./composer - Download Composer with https://getcomposer.org/download/
- Install Composer vendor files with
php composer.phar install
Simply duplicate the /emails/sample-email directory. From there you may edit the markup.php and style.css inside to fit your needs.
When you're done editing your email, open this repo in your localhost (or navigate to /index.php) and choose your email from the list. It will be compiled into one file at /emails/[your email]/final.html and displayed in the browser for preview.
Note: Any emails other than the sample-email will be gitignored.
- TEST your emails! We recommend https://www.litmus.com/
- Emails should be built using
<table>'s everywhere. This includes anything side-by-side and anything width-constrained. Most older email clients do not display<div>'s correctly, and will not listen to most layout CSS applied to them. - Images should be sized exactly as they display. Older email clients like Outlook 2016 do not display images in a constrained size, even if you add width, height, or style attributes to do so.
- Most spacing, such as
marginandpadding, are not recognized in older browsers. To provide spacing between elements, make a<table>with a<tr>and blank<td>inside that has explicit cellpadding applied. In addition, add CSS to thetdto add padding for modern clients.
This section will be updated with important tips & tricks as needed.